updated 12:15 pm EDT, Wed July 15, 2009

Mobile Core i7 i5 Roadmap

Virtually all the essential details for Intel's first mobile chips based on the Nehalem architecture have escaped today courtesy of a roadmap. It now says the quad-core Clarksfield processors at 1.6GHz, 1.73GHz and 2GHz will be named the i7-720QM, i7-820QM and i7-920XM respectively with 8MB of cache on all but the slowest model. In a surprise, however, all three will also have dramatic headroom for increased clock speeds and should scale up to 2.8GHz, 3.06GHz and 3.2GHz. It's implied in the Impress leak that these speeds will come through Turbo Boost, a feature that shuts down one or more of the cores in return for higher clock speeds for tasks that don't need every core.

The outline also suggests that one or two of the Clarksfield variants will consume less than 45W of power, though how much less isn't clear. All three should be expensive and start at roughly $340 for a 1.6GHz chip, $750 for a 1.73GHz part and $1,000 for a 2GHz Extreme component. The trio are slated to launch in fall and continue through to at least the second half of 2010.

Dual-core chips, codenamed Arrandale, have also received rudimentary details: the first, fastest chips launch in early 2010 and will include a lone high-end Core i7 model clocked at a minimum 2.66GHz (speeding up to 3.33GHz) with 4MB of cache. The i5 variants will run at 2.4GHz (up to 2.93GHz) and 2.54GHz (up to 3.06GHz) with 3MB and 4MB of cache each. Most of these chips will use between 25W and 35W of power and should cost between $200 and $340.

Lower-power L chips, as well as the SL chips used in systems like the MacBook Air, should also launch at the same time as Core i7 models with 2GHz (2.8GHz) and 2.13GHz (2.93GHz) versions that have 4MB of cache and use the same 17W of power as existing chips. Ultra-low voltage U and SU chips are poised to join the family with 1.06GHz (2.13GHz) and 1.2GHz (2.26GHz) Core i7 parts, again with 4MB of cache. These would use 10W of power like their present-day Core 2 Duo equivalents. Costs for either are still vague and would likely have the L/SL processors priced in the $300 range where the U/SU parts would dip into the $200 area.